Playoffs and The Blues Brothers

Anthony's club soccer team finished second in their bracket this year, which was good enough to reach the playoffs. The playoffs started today in San Marcos, which is about an hour away. Since we were going to be gone for so long with the travel time and game time, we took the whole family.

Luckily, there was a large play area to occupy Natalie and Eric. Natalie has also made friends with the sister of one of Anthony's teammates so she had a playmate. The play area was right next to the field where the game was played so we could watch the game and watch the kids too. The concession stand had a big selection of snacks and food, even ice cream. They even had real bathrooms. We were all set.

It started out cloudy and not too hot for most of the game, but the sun came out by the time the game ended and it was hot, hot, hot. Alex took an ice cube out of the cooler to help him cool down and soon, Natalie and Eric followed suit. That's ice that Eric is rubbing all over his head in the picture.

I didn't get too many photos of the game itself. We were next to the goal, so in the first half, when that goal was being defended by the other team, Anthony was way on the other side of the field, defending the our goal. Even with my big zoom lens, it was difficult to get any good pictures of the other side of the field. During the second half, most of the play was on the other side of the field, the opposing team's goal.

There was one exciting play that involved Anthony going one on one with an opposing team member all the way to the goal. Anthony managed to strip the ball away, which resulted in a corner kick for the other team, but they didn't end up scoring. The final score was 2-0. This means that Anthony's team gets to "go to state", which is being held in two weeks. They play again tomorrow at San Marcos, against a team that they should have beaten the last time they met. Patrick says that tomorrow's game is to determine who's first in the Western Conference and the seeding for the state tournament. Wish us luck!

On a final note, as I'm typing this post, the big boys are watching "The Blues Brothers" with Patrick and me. They're enjoying the humor, but they're missing some of it because they don't know who some of the people in it are. Here are some of the conversations that have been going on:

Me: Do you know who that is?
Anthony: No.
Me: Aretha Franklin.
Anthony: We still don't know who that is!

Me: That's Ray Charles.
Alex: Who's that?
Me: The blind guy.
Alex: Oh, I remember him. He was on American Idol, only he had longer hair.
Me: That was Stevie Wonder.
Alex: Ohhh, different blind guy.

Patrick is tickled that the boys are enjoying this movie as much as he does.